KARACHI, May 2: The deputy chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, has proposed a 7-point programme to steer the country out of the present constitutional and political crisis.

Accusing the Election Commission of rigging the referendum by casting 40 million votes against a total of the 1.5 million votes cast, the JI leader advised Gen Pervez Musharraf to adopt a constitutional and legal procedure and not to make the referendum and his presidency an issue of ego. The national political parties were prepared to come to the rescue of the Army and the country, he added.

Addressing a press conference at the party office on Thursday, where Dr Mairaj-ul-Huda Siddiqui, Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, Abdul Sattar Afghani and Sarfraz Ahmad were present, Prof Ghafoor warned that the Army, which had brought the October 12, 1999, situation under control, had become controversial. Killers and dacoits were running free and the government is threatening to crush the opposition, he said, adding that if Gen Musharraf failed to see reason, his fate would not be no different from that of past dictators.

Declaring that the national political and religious parties would launch a joint struggle to bring the country out of crisis, Prof Ghafoor recalled referendum scenes where opportunities were provided to an 18-year-old boy to exercise the right to vote 18 times and a 50-year-old man to vote 50 times, while the masses kept away from the polling stations. In Balochistan, there was a complete shutter-down strike and allied parties failed to come to the rescue. As a result, not more than 5 per cent votes were cast, and bogus results had turned the EC into a rigging commission, leaving no institution which could steer the country out of crisis, he said.

His 7-point programme includes:

1) Reconstitution of the Election Commission as the Chief Election Commissioner has lost people’s faith.

2) A new interim military government be set up for holding free and transparent elections.

3) Interim Constitutional Order of the PCO be withdrawn and the 1973 Constitution be restored.

4) With the consultation of the national political parties, a code of ethics be evolved for the election campaign which should be binding on the government and political parties, equally.

5) Civil, military and district governments should not be involved in politics.

6) Gen Pervez Musharraf should make a statement categorically that the office of the President be filled in accordance to the procedure of the constitution.

7) No amendments be carried out in the constitution, as it would be injustice to the country.